A moment of mourning for the old Zero X... hello Brooks?

Since I got such wonderful advice about saddles here before, I thought I should share this: the Zero X has changed. It's now really squishy. When I got my Calfee, I got a second Zero X. It started out not as hard as the old one and just got squashier and squashier. This put more and more weight on my soft tissues. Eventually I got so annoyed at this that I emailed them, only to find out that they've changed the Zero X to make it squashier *on purpose*. (They did this long enough ago (without changing the cover to make it obvious) that I'm pretty sure I can't track down another hard one.)

Now I'm a little baffled as to what to do. The rest of the Terry saddles seem to be out because they're too narrow (my seat bones measure in at about 140 mm center-to-center) or don't look particularly compatible with my normal bent-over posture on the hoods, let alone the drops. I'm clocking enough miles to need to find something comfortable that stays comfortable. It seems simple enough: I want something that holds my seat bones up so I can bend over and not squash all that poor soft tissue.

A bunch of my guy friends ride Brooks, so I borrowed a new B-17 that one had sitting around and rode it for a few miles yesterday. (My friend figures that since he's 80 pounds heavier than I am, whatever breaking in I do can be easily overcome by his butt.) Somehow I ended up sitting on the rivets. This was a lot more comfortable than it sounds; apparently my seat bones are fine with a hard seat but I *really* like not squashing my soft tissues. I'm going to shove the seat back a bit, but I suspect that the effective width of the B-17 is less than the effective width of my seat bones. I'm also a little worried that I won't be able to hang out very well in the drops because there's no cutout. On my friend's broken-in saddle, I'm not sitting directly on the rivets, but I can feel them right behind me. (I can also feel some leather on my soft tissue on the broken-in saddle, but it tickles more than anything.)

Brooks lovers, does this mean that what I really need is a B-68? The Selle Anatomica also looks interesting, but I can't tell whether the rivets would be a problem. It also seems awfully odd to even consider putting a saddle as heavy as a B-68 on my Calfee. :P

A Brooks B68 would be wider (by about 4cm), and you wouldn't need to sit on the rivets or cantle plate to get both sit bones on.

If the leather in the nose was pushing you, you can press it down with your hand to break it in and get it out of the way. (I worked on one of my B67 saddles this way while watching a tv show, worked fine, customized my saddle a bit more.)

If you order from www.wallbike.com you have 6 months to try it out, no questions asked. Broken in, worn, it's fine.

Oh, and if you like long nosed saddles (like the B17) be sure to avoid the "S" designated "short" B68-S.

There are some other Terry saddles that are wider than the Zero, but, based on my experience with those, they will all break down like your Zero and start to squish into the cutout (I even had that problem with the falcon, which has an enormous cutout and minimal padding).
Other saddles I've tried that have not worked include the Specialized Jett and Toupe, Fizik Arione, Brooks B17, and Selle An-Atomica.
If you're worried about "frontal" pressure in the drops, the Brooks may not be for you- I really liked mine as long as I was sitting very upright with my hands on the tops of my bars, but as soon as I went to the hoods or the drops, I was very uncomfortable in the soft tissue area. I got mine a Wallbike, and even though they said they'd be happy to take it back, I've kept it for when I build a more relaxed-geometry commuter/tourer.
I'm currently using the San Marco Glamour Aspide, and, so far, I've liked it. Not much padding, 155mm wide and flat in the back, but with a narrow nose (actually very Brooks-shaped). It's also got a channel instead of a cutout, which gives you some soft tissue relief (albeit not as much as a cutout) while still allowing it to have a narrow back-to-nose transition (a spot where I've had major chafing on all cutout saddles), and, to top it all off, it's pretty darn light (<200g)!

I've liked it so far, and my butt has been very finicky about saddles since I started riding a year and a half ago.

You might consider a Brooks Finesse with Ti rails; it is a little lighter. I ride mainly on the hoods and have found it very comfortable.

V.

My new bike came with a Fizik Vitesse hp. It's a little cushier than I'm used to, but not "squishy", and it's wide in back -- 150 mm. I'm finding it very comfortable.

http://www.westernbikeworks.com/prod...sp?p=FIVHP&i=2

If you're considering a Brooks you might look at Fizik too, they have a number of minimally-padded, non-cutout saddles that are mostly lighter than Brooks (though the non-carbon versions are not exceptionally light, I believe they are still lighter than Brooks). I actually find the Arione comfortable, but it's quite narrow (132mm) -- for an option in between the Arione and the Vitesse, you might look at the Aliante (142mm).

Thanks for all the advice. I'm checking out those saddles now.

KnottedYet: I'm going to borrow my friend's B-68 and try it out. I'm avoiding the S versions, because I think I'd end up with soft tissue on the rivets when I bend over! The B-17 may actually be getting a bit better, but I really like the hard bits under my butt for soft tissue comfort.

Andrea: I'll try to track down that San Marco somewhere where I can take a ride on it. It looks like there are different versions of the San Marco Glamour Aspide around, and some of them even have a cutout. (They also say they have "gel", which isn't reassuring, but definitely worth a try.)

Veronica: I think my seat bones are too wide for the Brooks Finesse, since it seems to be narrower than the B-17. I never thought of myself as a large person, even if I am 5'9", but apparently my seat bones disagree.

Liza: I suspect that the Fizik Vitesse will be too narrow. It looks domed in the pictures (is it?), which will make the effective width less.

If I even find something that's comfy enough for my frankenbike Heron, that will take a lot of the pressure off while I try to figure out something for my Calfee before I wear out my nice stiff Zero X.

I have a Specialized Jett 155 on my mountain bike. I used the Specialized measuring thingamabob in the store to determine what size to get. I was between sizes, so went up.

I've been much happier with the Jett than I was with my Terry Butterfly. I'd have put a Finesse on my mountain bike if it didn't get wet so much.

V.

I ride on hoods and drops just fine on both my Brooks B67 saddles, but I will be the first to admit I am not, eh-hem, "well endowed" in the soft tissue department. Softening the tissue-bearing portion of the leather with my hands as the sit-bone bearing portion softened took care of any issues. I'm lucky, I guess.

I am, however, well endowed in the ischial tuberosity span, and the B67 (same dimensions as the B66, B68, and B72) is truly the most comfortable saddle I've ever used. (past the age of puberty)

Height doesn't really have a whole lot to do with ischial tuberosity span. Tall women can have narrow spans, short women can have wide spans. Best bet is to let go of all preconceived notions and just measure 'em.

Sheldon Brown on saddles: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html

Edit: BTW, my outside-to-outside sit bone measurement is 170mm-180mm depending on how aero I am. You can imagine how hard it has been for me to find a lightly padded/unpadded saddle with a minimum of 2cm of wiggle room! (190-200mm) (the B66-67-68-72 is 210mm wide, oh joy!)

Another SSM Glamour Aspide fan. I have the regular one, the one that's sold via Performance.

I also had chafing issues because of the width of cut-out saddles and the nose-to-seat transition. The old (not the new squishy one) Zero X would be okay for 40 miles, but would absolutely kill me for distances over that. With the abrupt transition that the SSM has, my legs aren't rubbing against the saddle with every revolution.

I haven't done many long rides in that last few months, but rode 72 miles yesterday. I would not have survived that ride on another saddle besides the SSM Aspide Glamour.

It's the opposite of most saddles, which start out feeling good and then inflict paint, in that at first it feels hard and a bit uncomfortable. Soon, though, it pretty much disappears.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andrea

There are some other Terry saddles that are wider than the Zero, but, based on my experience with those, they will all break down like your Zero and start to squish into the cutout (I even had that problem with the falcon, which has an enormous cutout and minimal padding).
Other saddles I've tried that have not worked include the Specialized Jett and Toupe, Fizik Arione, Brooks B17, and Selle An-Atomica.
If you're worried about "frontal" pressure in the drops, the Brooks may not be for you- I really liked mine as long as I was sitting very upright with my hands on the tops of my bars, but as soon as I went to the hoods or the drops, I was very uncomfortable in the soft tissue area. I got mine a Wallbike, and even though they said they'd be happy to take it back, I've kept it for when I build a more relaxed-geometry commuter/tourer.
I'm currently using the San Marco Glamour Aspide, and, so far, I've liked it. Not much padding, 155mm wide and flat in the back, but with a narrow nose (actually very Brooks-shaped). It's also got a channel instead of a cutout, which gives you some soft tissue relief (albeit not as much as a cutout) while still allowing it to have a narrow back-to-nose transition (a spot where I've had major chafing on all cutout saddles), and, to top it all off, it's pretty darn light (<200g)!

I've liked it so far, and my butt has been very finicky about saddles since I started riding a year and a half ago.

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